Sponsor: By Hand is a series of lookbooks that focus on different fiber and fabric “making communities” around the country. Each serial features photo journals and interviews with both up-and-coming and well-known yarn designers and dyers, local yarn stores, knitwear designers, fabric artists, and other makers who share the same philosophy and aesthetic of hand crafting functional forms to share and connect with others in the community. Projects, patterns, classes, and opportunities to purchase the artists’ work are also included, as well as opportunities to share what is beautiful and unique about each locale.

Issue #1 features Portland, Oregon – meet local yarn dyers, designers, companies, and an amazing local yarn store. Find recipes, exclusive knitting patterns made from our featured yarns, and other hand craft projects. Learn about some of the artists who make up Portland’s creative community, including a pastry chef, an indigo dyer, a letterpress designer, and a team of ceramics artists. Find hand making classes in Portland that will inspire and challenge you. Take a photographic day trip to Timberline Lodge and enjoy the beauty and diversity of Portland.

Coming up: Issue #2, featuring Portland and mid-coast Maine (to be released late Jan. 2017), and Issue #3, featuring Nashville (to be released May 2017). Learn more about By Hand at byhandserial.com and follow on Instagram @byhandserial

Fiber folk: Whitney Hayward has her hands in a lot of fiber goodness these days and if you’re on Instagram you may be familiar with her journey, from photojournalist and spinning maven to Twig and Horn and now the launch of her yarn line, Stone Wool. Whitney’s ambition and passion is evident as she tells her special story, one I’m sure many of you will be able to relate to. You can find Whitney at thestonewool.co and twigandhorn.com and on Instagram @whit_knits, @stone_wool and @twigandhorn

Sponsor: Tightly Knit Designs is a line of patterns by Sloane Rosenthal, a knitwear designer and lawyer in Northern California. She’s just released her first book of patterns, Independent Fabrication, a collection of accessory patterns using lovingly-chosen small-batch yarns. The collection includes five quick-knitting, textured accessories, including two hats, a cowl, and two pairs of mitts, showcasing dramatic cables and other knitterly details that are surprisingly straightforward to work. The patterns feature yarns from outstanding producers of thoughtfully-made, responsibly-sourced small batch yarns, including Sincere Sheep, Elemental Affects, Miss Babs, Alpenglow Yarns, and Jill Draper. The collection is available as a print and eBook bundle, a standalone eBook, and in individual patterns. You can find Sloane and the Independent Fabrication collection at tightlyknitdesigns.com, and on Ravelry and Instagram @skrosenthal

Giveaway: The winner of last weeks giveaway is Teresa Cochran. You’ve won a subscription to Taproot Magazine, congratulations!

This week’s giveaway is sponsored by Twig and Horn and they’re giving away the Ossify Mitts kit, featuring Stone Wool Cormo yarn in Tobacco 3 and Twig and Horn stitch markers and Brittany double point needles. To enter, leave a comment on this post.

I am amazed that you have a new podcast with everything happening in your life at the moment! So excited! Tomorrow is my day off, so I’m saving it for the morning. My husband and I have been listening to the very first podcasts together, and it’s really been an amazing experience to share the inspiration and talk about our own fiber dreams and such. I think you are inspiring him to get back to spinning after a many year break. 🙂

Ashley, your podcasts are so addicting! Entertaining, educational but most of all personal. So amazing to feel connected to the remarkable people you interview. You have set me on a new path in terms of how I look at fiber and what it means to hold a skein of cormo in my hand that comes from a small farm producer.
Am thrilled to find this source for cormo…. an amazing fiber!!

Hopefully when I’m a designer people won’t mix us up ;p Whitney is a truly inspiring individual who I’ve been following for a while and I can’t believe she has her own yarn line I didn’t know about! I’m excited to try it.

This was/is such a great episode! It was so lovely hearing Whitney tell her story after following much of it on instagram. She is an inspiration for anyone trying to pursue a career in the fiber industry!

I had a very similar study abroad experience but in China, not Japan. So fun to hear Whitney’s connection with her host mom as my host mom also knit. She knit the most beautiful baby clothes and just by looking at a photo! No pattern at all.

Another wonderful episode and still my favorite thing to listen to while knitting. Thank you Whitney for sharing your story and also for including an undyed option for your lovely Stone Wool yarn! While I usually gravitate to neutrals, especially whites, the color palette for Stone Wool is just lovely.

I love Whitney’s goal of sustaining a farm (or two!) with Cormo. I was surprised to see how reasonably priced it is compared to yarns that are marketed as being “sustainable” (for which there are so many definitions) I look forward to finding just the right project to call for a gradient line!

Thanks for such a great podcast,listening Whitney’s story, you can tell from listening to her that she comes from good stock as my grandfather would say. I would love to try the new yarn Stone Wool with the mitts pattern they look warm and pretty. Thanks for the chance.
My raverly name is TwinPuggles.

I appreciate your heartfelt connections with Whitney. I need to look up the Japanese designer she mentioned. I studied abroad too and really enjoyed hearing how knitting was integrated in her experience there.

I really relate to Whitney’s story, as I myself didn’t get intensely into knitting until faced with hardship. I’m so glad it turned into such a lovely direction for her! It just goes to show that knitting, and the knitting community really is a source of comfort 🙂

Interesting hearing Whitney’s experience with Japanese. We did not get along, but I have family there and have incredibly fond memories of being there – it was in the 80s and I wore hand knitted big colourful sweaters. These, of course, made me stand out even more than I would have anyway as I am only a couple of inches short of 6 foot!

Oh, I’ve been swooning over Stone Wool ever since its release, but I didn’t know much about its creation. It was lovely to hear the story, and this yarn is definitely on my wish list for a sweater’s quantity in the future

I’ m from Missouri! I find your story exciting and courageous and it encourages me to step out in my dreams of becoming a more accomplished knitter and spinner and who knows what more. Thank you from the “Show Me State”.

Thank you for the podcast! I started listening to it couple of months ago and got hooked. It is so nice to hear how other people got into knitting and fiber in general. I think it is interesting to see the difference between the US community and my native Icelandic knitting community where it is more of an every day thing.
I would love to knit something from stone wool as I have never actually knitted from yarn from the US even though I’ve lived here for 6 years.

oh, I LOVE the new Stone Wool in Tobacco! It’s the perfect, perfect color. I have been on a very strict stash-busting diet but this one is the most dreamy temptation I’ve seen in forever. I can’t wait to try it out one of these days.

This episode was so very near and dear to my heart. I grew up in Japan and learned to knit there too, using Japanese patterns. Visiting Portland, Maine is high in my travel list so perhaps I could meet Whitney. Oh what a chat we would have!

I’m excited to listen to this episode. I feel connected to it because I’ve lived in Japan and am a lawyer by training in Northern California and have been longing to knit mittens. I love hearing about fiber folk. Thanks!

I am always amazed at the varied journeys that have brought people into this fiber community–and grateful for the twists and turns, even though as Whitney said, they don’t feel good at the time. There must be something healing in wool fumes!

Very interesting experience! I learned from my grandmother too and I’m fascinated by japanese patterns. It was interesting to hear about the earthquake in Japan and the following great experience as a photojournalist. Thank you for the episode.